January 1, 2018

Most movie watching we do around the holidays is Hallmark. I’ve been rather burned out plus Hallmark seems to be turning out quite a few busts. I felt a lot of films were blah if not worse this year, many we (even my mom who’s usually willing to finish more) didn’t finish. This year the younger girls didn’t join in as much either. Anyway, I think the ones below are worth watching. I watched the first three more than once. And of course we watched most of our old favorites that we own or had taped (ha, recorded) as well.

Road to Christmas. Adorable and funny with little drama, my idea of a perfect Hallmark recipe. Also Chad Michael Murray (thinking this out I wanted to say Chad Dylan Cooper, probably NOT a coincidence Disney).

It’s Christmas, Eve. Sweet and no drama, gorgeous singing. A bit of humor

Someone told us almost all Hallmark movies are filmed in Canada. I know all the actors aren’t from Canada, but lately we’ve sort of been playing “spot the Canadian” noticing all the Canadians via the vowels.

As far as the other movies, we watched The Grinch (original animated) before Christmas, White Christmas on Christmas Day (I was a little distracted what with trying to get ready) and A Charlie Brown Christmas (and another extra Charlie Brown Christmas on the DVD) after Christmas. I don’t love It’s a Wonderful Life or Christmas in Connecticut, but I might try some from this list of old Christmas movies next year.

A Literary Christmas Wrap Up~Annika’s Secret Wish by Beverly Lewis~Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. Tolkein~A Merry Christmas, and Other Christmas Stories by Louisa May Alcott~Stories Behind the Best-loved Songs of Christmas by Ace Collins~Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: a Family Celebration of Christmas by Ann Voskamp

Yeah, I finished all of two books. I switched to my Alcott collection which had far more stories, but I only got through the first few. I only finished one story in the Christmas carols book. I opted not to read the Voskamp book. The books I finished are kids books, but they are darling, and illustrated books are part of Christmas growing up. I should have pulled out some of the ones I grew up on. I wish I had a total list of the ones I grew up with because I am not sure we saved them all.

A Christmas Bucket List

I didn’t complete these all, and I fudged on a few (this year I was making gifts [I didn’t finish them all; I still have those plus really late birthday gifts to sew] plus we had an extra Christmas celebration because of conflicting in-law events plus we left for vacation the third day after Christmas).

I completed
~Listen to New Christmas Music (my Bing Crosby C.D.; I had meant new to me groups or songs)
~Mail a Christmas Card or Two
~Create a Christmas notebook (this is still and was meant to be a work in progess; I need to add helps to prepare for next year)
~Watch a Christmas Classic (White Christmas; I had meant a new to me movie)
~Bake Bread from My German Baking Book (A Christmas Star; my pan wasn’t big enough because I used all the dough, so mine looks like a starfish)
~Bake Cookies from My German Baking Book (lebkuchen which is German gingerbread and has honey instead of molasses, white instead of brown sugar, and a tad more spice and more types of spices; see color difference below)
~Read a Christmas Poem
~A Photoshoot of Luna in a stocking (I tried; I was trying to keep her still, the photo focused, and yeah . . .)
~Christmas clean room and pack (well, it is neat, but I didn’t have time to vacuum before we left because I was sewing the morning of for the trip)
~Build a Gingerbread House (a graham cracker house at a friends; I made gingerbread dough for a house, and I amended my plans to build it there and then further amended the plan by making the dough into cookies. I had great fun though because I thought my castle was fun and easy and satisfying. The hostess had bowls of thick royal icing to spread on. Works MUCH better than tubes)
~Decorate for Christmas (I mainly decorated the neat section of my room; one half bookcase plus I hung a little bell wreath on my door)
~Buy or Make a Christmas Outfit (I really meant Christmas Eve; I wore a new gorgeous teal dress I bought from Thred-Up; one day I’ll have that dream dress made)
~Make a Christmas Craft (I’m going to count the calligraphy and stamped place names I made for my grandmother’s Christmas party)
~Participate in a Christmas blog event (I sort of participated in the Literary Christmas event)

Touches of Christmas

Best of Hallmark

I’m still of the opinion that lately Hallmark has put more effort into their year round movies, but I did enjoy a few this year. The last two are my favorites; the very last is classic favorite quality, I think.Christmas GetawayThe Christmas CottageA Gift to RememberWith Love, ChristmasChristmas Next Door